7 August 2016

The Tudors’ Road to Bosworth Part 6: The Tudors Land at Mill Bay in Pembrokeshire

After following the long exile of Jasper and Henry
Tudor in Brittany I have now returned to Pembrokeshire in West Wales. The Tudors had made an unsuccessful attempt to
invade England in 1483 but learned from this near disaster. On Monday the 1st
of August, 1485 they sailed again from the mouth of the Seine with their
mercenary army of some four thousand men to challenge King Richard III for the crown.

It
seems the sea voyage led by the Poulian
De Dieppe, flagship of their capable captain, Guillaume de Casenove,
was uneventful and had
the benefit of favourable winds. They made landfall at Mill Bay, a secluded,
pebble-strewn beach in the far west of Wales just before sunset on Sunday 7th
August.

Mill Bay, Pembrokeshire

On going ashore, Henry Tudor kissed the ground and
recited a Psalm in Latin. Some accounts suggest it was Psalm 23 but the consensus
was Psalm 46: ‘Judge me, O God,
and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man.’

I also read
that Henry’s French mercenaries were reluctant to come ashore – and had to be
tempted with offers of ale and fresh bread. The ships were unloaded in the
fading light and Henry’s army made the short trek to the nearest town of Dale,
where they camped for the night and made preparations for the long march
through Wales to confront the army of King Richard.

I visited Mill
Bay on a bright summer’s day and was pleased to see a bronze plaque
commemorating Henry’s landing there. I also found a post placed there by the HistoryPoints Website which celebrates Welsh History. The bay is far enough from
Dale for them to have landed undetected, although the path up the hill is
steep. The Tudors had brought artillery and ammunition from France, so it must
have been quite a haul, despite the number of men.

The final stop
on this journey in the footsteps of the Tudors is to Bosworth Field, where
there is an Anniversary Battle Re-enactment Event on 20th & 21st August.
See http://www.bosworthbattlefield.org.uk/
for more details.

I am an author
of historical fiction and non-fiction books. I live in Pembrokeshire and specialise in the fifteenth century, with a particular interest
in the lives of the early Tudors. For more
information please visit my website and find me on Facebook and
Twitter @tonyriches.

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